Sunshine
by Trisana Tennant
Summary: Nobody was expecting him to return from Resembool with anybody in tow. So what was this strange gold creature on his shoulder and what's its secret?


**This story had many inspirations. One is the lines in italics, which is the song _Sunshine _by Keane. The others, I leave to you to figure out before I reveal them at the end. BTW, the only characters I own in this FMA AU are the Mayor and the old lady. **

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><p>There had been strange reportings coming out of Resembool. Lieutenant Colonel Roy Mustang was sent to investigate it on his own. He had to give Lieutenants Riza Hawkeye and Jean Havok the slip several train stations back as they wanted to come with him. He climbed to the top of a hill. Something was on fire. He ran and arrived there at the same time as several people carrying buckets of water. A young boy was crying for his sister. There was a rustle in the bushes. Roy turned to look at it. It rustled it again. His feet moved on their own accord and he knelt in front of it. A small gold colored creature looked up at him. He reached out for it, unable to stop himself. It scrambled into his hands, terror making it shake. He slowly rose to his feet and left the scene.<p>

_I hold you in my hands_

_A little animal_

_And only some dumb idiot would let you go_

Jean and Riza caught up with him. He and the mayor had determined it was a griffin. Its golden eyes stared up at him unblinkingly. "Nobody here would want it," the mayor told Roy. "It'd die one way or another."

"I don't feel right about letting her die," Roy picked up a grape from the bowl of fruit nearby. Little golden paws took it from him and the griffin ate it. He sighed and took another.

"Her?"

Roy put a bandaged hand to his face. "She won't let me look to know for sure but I just have a feeling she's a female." She grabbed his sleeve and tried to bite his wrist but he began to stroke her head and she calmed down.

"Sir, have you adopted an animal?" Riza asked. He went white,

"No, I'm trying to find a home for her!" She let him go and the three of them left. She began to cry out when he was out of sight. He went running back for her. "I think she's adopted me," he told the other two when they gave him a funny look.

_If I'm one thing_

_Then that's the one thing_

_I should know_

They traveled back to Central. She grew adjusted to life there, becoming Roy's alarm clock every morning and greeting him fondly when he returned home every night. Days became weeks. Weeks became months. The search for Edwarda Elric moved through Central. Every time he walked past her missing person flyer, he stopped because something about her eyes seemed so familiar.

Months became years. Every year on the same night, he had the same dream. A young boy was staring at a wilting rose. "Hurry up, sister," he'd say every time. "Your time's running out." The search for Edwarda was called off.

He called Maes Hughes, his best friend. "What can you tell me about this missing girl?"

There was a shuffling on papers on the other end. "She disappeared from Resembool on her 12th birthday." He gave the date.

"I was there that night, I found my griffin then."

_Can anybody find their home?_

_Out of everyone, can anybody find their home?_

It would have been Edwarda's 20th birthday the night he dreamt the boy crying. "You're out of time, sister." He decided to take the griffin to work with him. She hadn't grown once the past eight years. She assisted him every way she could that day, even batting a pen over to him with her little paws.

Maes bounded in. "Let's go get lunch, Roy. Bring her with you." They left, her hitching a ride on his shoulder. It was pouring down rain when they stepped outside so she flew to his hands and he cupped them around her.

_I hold you in cupped hands_

_And shield you from a storm_

_Where only some dumb idiot would let you go_

They ate lunch and Roy headed back on his own. It had quit raining and she was back on his shoulder. Somebody blocked his path up ahead. "Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist." His dark eyes looked into the red ones of the man they called Scar. "Your life ends here."

_If I'm one thing_

_Then that's the one thing_

_I should know_

Roy backed up, reaching for the gun his holster was missing. He looked at his hands. He had also left his gloves behind. For every step backwards he took, Scar took two steps forward. He was cornered with no way to fight and no flight path. He stumbled and fell. "This must be the end of the line for me." Something soft brushed the back of his neck and the griffin leapt off his shoulder. She landed in front of him and grew.

_Can anybody find their home?_

_Out of everybody, can anybody find their home?_

Scar extended his hand, his palm feeling fur instead of flesh. He tried to stop, tried to move but it was too late. He shouted, the pain of slaying such a creature coming to haunt him. He ran and she fell. Roy got up and stopped dead in his tracks. An old woman was standing there with a young girl. "Miss Elric, until you learn to do something to benefit another that isn't your brother or Winry Rockbell, you will become and remain a griffin. You have until the night of your 20th birthday to do so or you will die." A dual orange light began to glow from both the girl and the griffin. The vision faded and the orange light faded, leaving a young woman in the place of where the griffin had been.

He ran to her. "Are you Edwarda Elric?" he asked.

She nodded. "Thank you for helping me break the curse," she whispered and then she focused somewhere else. "I did it, Mother," she said before those gold eyes shut.

He gathered her body in his arms and a single rain cloud burst into life over his head. The rain came down as he cried, kissing her forehead and lips. "No, come back! Why? Why did you have to save me?" Footsteps approached. "If you're Scar, returning to kill me, go ahead." He held Edwarda's limp form closer, her automail arm dangling in the air.

_Lost in the sun_

_Can anybody find their home?_

_Come on_

_Come on_

_Come on_

_Can anybody find their home?_

"I'm not Scar," Maes said, before sighing and sitting next to him, taking in the black clad bundle in his arms. "Who's that?"

"Edwarda Elric. She was under a curse to be a griffin until she could do something to help another."

"And?" Maes prompted.

"She saved my life."

"Scar?"

Roy nodded.

Maes whistled. "That was unexpected." He placed a comforting hand on Roy's shoulder as Riza ran up. Her brown eyes took the situation in and she sank to sit on his other side.

Roy looked at her. "Can you phone the mayor of Resembool for me to tell him that Edwarda Elric has been found?"

"That's her there," Riza said, she didn't need the confirmation from the other two although they gave it.

A single tear rolled down Roy's face and landed on Ed's. "Her brother will want to come collect her body."

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><p>Two months had gone by and Alphonse Elric was in his way to visit Ed's grave. When he arrived, somebody had already been there, judging by the two flowers on her headstone: a sunflower and a red rose.<p>

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><p><strong>So yeah, one's obviously a <em>Beauty and the Beast <em>type thing. Again, thanks to Tamora Pierce, I got the idea of Ed being a griffin and her dying to save Roy was something I thought of myself...**


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